Oh no that's not Yardley. According to issue 100 the name of the artist was Ron Lim. He was the primary artist for the comics for a good amount of time, I'm not sure when they finally gave up with him. His art was abysmal. And that particular image I showed was back from issue 101. To be honest I'm not even sure what's going on in that issue, something about Chaos Knuckles fucking up time paradoxs or something, so there was a mini OVA story for a couple pages (I'll admit though Lim did draw classic Sonic better than his attempts at modern Sonic) Oh and Rotor is still called Rotor. His evil equivalent picked up the name Boomer though, as per Scourge's demands for them to be more "original" Also I hope that Robotnik still has his sexist Freedom Fighter dolls that are in my signature somewhere
This. The only difference between Bates and Yardley's styles are that Bates leans more toward SegaSonic-izing everyone. Which I'm not sure if I'm a fan of, at least in the context of the Archieverse. Also Yardley's work can be hit or miss, I'll agree, but the man can do a mean cover. He also has some really great issues too, and I love how his work is more expressive than previous artists. Haters gonna hate, etc.
Yardley's art was actually the reason I stopped subscribing to the comics. I mean, I stuck to reading the comic through all its highs and lows, and I was (and continue to be) very on the fence about Ian Flynn's narrative direction. But it was Tracey Yardley's artwork that made me ultimately decide that Archie Sonic was no longer for me anymore. IMO, his handiwork looks like its some sort of bizzarro hybridization of Art Mawhinney and Yuji Uekawa's SegaSonic artwork... but containing neither style's strengths... thus making his art style very off-putting. Ben Bates' art really isn't noticeably different to me. I can't even tell the difference between the two, except whenever I read the issue's credits. Are either of them as bad as Ron Lim's work? No. Good God no. But that's about the only compliment I have to give them... Personally, my three favorite artists, excluding J. Axer and Spaz's stuff in the '90s, are: Steven Butler, Art Mawhinney (that is, his work before Sonic's redesign... He never was up to the task of assimilating the new designs), and (I'm surprised this guy isn't mentioned more) Manny Galan.
I can't explain the differences between Bates and Yardley, but they're definitely there and I gotta say Bates' work is much better than Yardley's. That said, I still think Spaz, Steven Butler, Manny Galan and J. Axer are the best artists the series has ever had.
Guys, if you want to know this gist of the early comics read Issue #57. After that read whatever the hell you want.
Yardley is a good artist and I like his expressions but his character designs just don't look right. Bates is slightly better but he is still uses the Tails style facial proportions which I don't think fit her. Then again after ditching the SatAm style almost none of the artists draw Sally right. We get either this SEGA Sonic style Sally which looks she's had her face and limbs pressed by a steamroller or the ridiculously humanoid style Sally that gives me the idea someone down at Archie is incredibly horny. Notice how even in the highly retro style Genesis panels Spaz draws Sal like a Playboy, ironically the only element he did convert was her face similar to Yardley's version, about the one thing I'd like them to leave alone. Then again Archie Sal just doesn't interest me like SatAm Sal did, in both design and personality. She just comes off as rather dull and overglorified.
I'm going to be honest and say I also lost interest, primarily with both the narrative of Flynn's and Yardley's artwork. Yes, still better than Ron Lim, who even as a kid I realized had terrible art (even at that time I said he drew characters like long-armed drones) but still not great. It just didn't feel like effort was going in anymore. Pender's run made the series an on-going soap-opera, but when it wasn't him penning the dialogue, it was good. Karl Bollers, specifically in the series' issues 80-98-ish were very good. I still hold he was one of the best writers the Archie comics have ever had; I always dug his dialogues.
Man... fucking Ron Lim. When I was about eight or nine (when I started reading the Archie Comics, around issue 100), I started modeling my art style after him. Not sure why, but at the time I considered it visually appealing, or maybe just incredibly easy to draw. As a result, everything had stupidly long limbs for a few years. Jay Axer is probably my favorite in hindsight, my only issue with him being that he gives the characters too much human-like anatomical structure. Elbows, shoulders, torso, calves, etc. It's more realistic, sure, but it always looked off to me. Whatever happened to Dawn Best? She used to do the Knuckles side stories back around the early 100 issues and then sort of disappeared, and no one really talks about her when discussing past Sonic artists.
Because Dawn Best took what you just mentioned about J. Axer's art and multiplied it by infinity. Arms and legs were really bulky and in a couple of shots Sonic and co. looked like they actually had pectoral muscles. That's as much as I can remember of her stuff though; if only I actually had a good copy of artwork from the #125 issue or something.
My least favorite Sonic artist ever. I straight up never went back and read these issues (I missed most of them between 130 and 175.) because of this shit.
No. No. Freakin' no. I knew he would come up. Worst art to ever touch the series. They all look like fish. No. Seriously, though, who ever thought that would be a good idea? Even at the series lowest, it looks like the Sistine Chapel compared to that. EDIT: Ninja'd. I actually like that guys art to an extent. I'm glad they kept him to a minimum, though... it was just a nice cool little side style. My horror was referenced to the artist Dark Sonic brought up.
....Recolour the Fanhog is back? And for a 4 part series, no less? Do they REALLY not have any other niche characters they could do something with? This is the SONIC franchise, for christ's sake, you'd have thought they'd be spoilt for choice.
... God I'm glad I passed over that. what a horriable art style! I remember a few years ago I picked up a random issue (#157 I believe) because of its cover work and I remember reading a few pages. on top of "wtf is going on?" feeling, the art style was just not what I remember it looked anthro-ish with cube eyes. ^This especially stuck out. that...thing...just doesn't look like sonic to me. I started reading the comics again around #186 and I think yardley's style fits perfectly and I wouldn't mind if they stuck with this or a similar style for years on end.
Y'know, I always thought that when it comes to terrible art-styles in Archie, nothing could top this. But, eh, I personally think the comics are doing fine right now. Sure, there's better (though YMMV, as with everything), but then, there's also worse, as evidenced by the last 1 1/2 pages. :v:
HAHAHAHAHA OMG what issue is that I need to read it. Those are the worst drawings I've ever seen. Ron Lim is fucking Michaelangelo compared to this.
Jay Oliveras. What the fuck. That looks like it is drawn by a five year old. I kind of like how uniform all the first row are. Archie seemed to be sticking with a certain design back then, now they just kind of let the artist do whatever they want. Though, Ben Bates and Tracey Yardley, as mentioned, have enough similarity that it seems like a uniform style has returned.
